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If a pipe breaks and water leaks into your Chicago warehouse, many of your products could get damaged.

Commercial Water Damage Technicians Discuss Dehumidification

If a pipe breaks and water leaks into your Chicago warehouse, many of your products could get damaged. High moisture levels can fade paint and ruin items. Cardboard inside your warehouse can hold moisture and increase the relative humidity inside the building. If organic materials stay wet and humidity stays elevated inside a structure for more than 48 hours microbial growth can occur.

Any time excessive moisture is present inside a building, structural drying occurs to lower humidity levels and moisture levels in building materials and contents. During any commercial water damage process in Chicago, air movers and dehumidifiers get set up to speed up the natural evaporation rate. Air movers push wet, evaporated air around the room and dehumidifiers pull moisture out of the air.

Dehumidifiers serve two purposes during any rapid drying process. The systems pull water vapor out of wet air dispensing the water out in liquid form, therefore, lowering the relative humidity inside your warehouse. The dehumidifiers also exhaust out hot, dry air that gets put into the airflow of the air moving system to start the process over again.

To figure out how many dehumidifiers to set up in any given situation, the severity of the water damage is given a numbered class. The numbered class is determined by how many porous materials are present within the affected area. For class one scenarios little dehumidification is required whereas, class four situations require specialized dehumidification.

Class one damages require the least amount of evaporation and occur when the carpet and pad do not get very wet, and moisture exists mostly inside non-porous materials. Class two scenarios require more dehumidification occur when more porous materials such as the carpet and pad inside warehouse offices get wet. In some class two situations, water is wicked up the walls a foot or two.

Porous materials such as cardboard boxes inside your warehouse can hold moisture and require dehumidification to keep your products unaffected. When drying out your company's warehouse, we place the drying equipment in areas that help dry out your products and equipment as well as any of the building's structural components. Our SERVPRO technicians make sure the equipment does not get set up in areas where there is foot and forklift traffic, keeping your company's work area safe.

The proper use of dehumidification and air moving equipment can prevent you from losing products and other items inside your warehouse. If you ever need professional help with structural drying at your place of business, call SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville at (312) 509-5000 24 hours a day.

Why You Should Never Panic After Experiencing Fire Damage In Chicago

After experiencing fire damage, there specific professional services which can help to lower the costs of a claim.

Never Panic After Experiencing Fire Damage

After experiencing fire damage, there specific professional services which can help to lower the costs of a claim. Restoration services work towards reducing the number of replacements which may be necessary after such incidents. If you live in Chicago, apart from being prepared to counter such situations, knowing your options counts and there is every reason to treat such issues with the urgency they deserve.

Let us begin by understanding the underlying cleaning principles that our SERVPRO technicians employ when dealing with fire damage in Chicago. When we are working for you, we always aim to return the materials to their preloss state, and we start off by inspecting the area and locating the smoke residues. When carrying out the inspection, we usually begin from the place where the fire originates from and analyze how far the smoke particles have moved.

After locating the smoke residues, it is time to identify the kind of smoke residues at the site. Given that fire consumes different types of materials, there is a possibility of finding a number of smoke particles within the same location. That helps our SERVPRO technicians to choose a suitable cleaning procedure. Before the cleaning process starts, it is equally important to identify the surface type. While some surfaces can allow abrasive cleaning methods, some area can deteriorate further if we subject them to such cleaning methods.

Certain restoration cases require move-outs before the restoration starts. Our SERVPRO team readily moves your items to a remote location if such a process is likely to protect your contents from further damage. On the same like, there are specific items such as guns, ammunition, and jewelry that we encourage owners to remove from the site before our team can start working.

Odors are a big challenge after a fire, and our team performs deodorization to neutralize the smells. To spread the deodorants, we may either use thermal foggers or ULV (Ultra Low Volume) Foggers. The equipment can also apply disinfectants and fungicides which help prevent chances of bacteria and fungi growth.

SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville is a proven leader in fire, mold, storm, and water damage restoration. Call us today at (312) 509-5000 when you need us to make it “Like it never even happened.”

Cleaning can make A Big Difference after Experiencing Fire Damage in Chicago

Cleaning, a vital step after fire damage.

The steps you take after experiencing a fire damage incident have a direct impact on your property. Given that such events are traumatic, you need to seek for professional services if you need your concerns addressed in the right manner. There is a lot you can salvage in your Chicago property when the proper procedures are put in place to mitigate the damage.

Our SERVPRO technicians perform emergency services with the aim of limiting the secondary damages that your Chicago property is likely to suffer after a fire damage event. We start by pretesting and in the process find out the contents that you need to replace, items that do not require any form of cleaning and those to clean. Once we complete the pretest, we let you know the scope of the restoration process so that you know what to expect.

Let us discuss some of the cleaning techniques that our SERVPRO technicians use when restoring your property. When it is necessary, our team can employ immersion techniques when we need to apply the cleaning solution to all parts of the material. With this technique, we can control the quantity and temperature of the cleaning product as well as the time of exposure to the cleaning agent.

When we do not need the cleaning product to saturate the material and prevent overwetting, we can decide to use surface techniques. For instance, we can wipe after spraying the cleaning agent on hard surfaces such as furniture. It is also appropriate to use foam cleaning if excessive moisture is likely to damage the materials.

After cleaning all the surfaces, it is time to perform deodorization. This process improves the quality of air and sterilizes surfaces to lower the chances of bacteria and fungi growth that are likely to cause health effects. Our SERVPRO technicians always put on protective gear such as masks, gloves, and overalls as a safety measure during the restoration process.

SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville attends to all forms of storm, mold, fire, and water damage. Call us at (312) 509-5000 if you want to work with a proven industry leader, and we can make “Like it never even happened.”

SERVPRO Has the Flexibility for Water Damage Restorations in Chicago Gas Stations

If your gas station experiences water damage, call on the professionals at SERVPRO for quick and thorough restoration services.

SERVPRO is Here to Help with Water Damage to Your Commercial Space

Chicago gas stations with water damage can be challenging projects for some companies to handle due to their relatively large floor and concrete areas, a combination of retail and industrial features, and unique safety codes. However, SERVPRO is trained and prepared to deal with any water damage in such a facility, from light bathroom overflows to catastrophic flooding across the entire property. We are an industrial-scale cleanup and restoration company with the equipment and logistics necessary to handle large projects quickly and efficiently, ensuring that your doors open sooner and with less cost than without our help.

Gas stations in Chicago can take water damage both inside the store area and outside by pumps and other facilities. In some cases, a single disaster may affect both areas at once and require a multi-pronged approach. Our large and well-rounded staff allows us to take on these situations alone and avoid hiring on additional contractors. Keeping the operation centralized and under a single company helps to decrease costs and paperwork and may be a preferred option by your insurance provider. In some cases, we may bring in specialists to handle specific situations beyond our expertise, but these cases are only a small portion of our commercial work.

What keeps most companies from accepting work at a gas station is the potential for danger. Some types of water damage may create situations in which standard restoration techniques could be hazardous, and few companies can adapt to changing scenarios like SERVPRO. We keep certified technicians and specialized equipment on-hand 24 hours per day to combat unexpected and extraordinary circumstances we encounter in the field and can employ these as needed if any hazards are present at the job site. Our technicians are also certified to operate in and around biohazard areas for more serious incidents.

SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville serves a large local area by responding quickly to any reports of fire, water, or mold damage in the local area. Call us for our services or a quote at (312) 509-5000.

Flood Damage In Your Chicago Home From Snowmelt

If your home has been the victim of flood damage from snowmelt, it is something that you need to take care of right away with professional help.

Flood Damage From Snowmelt

If you are a homeowner in Chicago with a basement, you know that it is essential to prevent water from coming into your residence. Water intrusion can have a devastating effect on the integrity of your structure. With the spring here, you need to worry about snowmelt, which is water and runoff from the melting of fallen snow. When ice and packed snow are on the ground when the temperatures rise, the warmer temps create rapid melting of snow and ice, making excess water and runoff very quickly. It, in turn, causes flooding.

If your home in Chicago has been the victim of flood damage from snowmelt, it is something that you need to take care of right away with professional help. The longer the water sits, the more in danger you are for your structure to become weakened, or sustain additional damage, such as the growth of mold. Our SERVPRO staff have the experience and tools to help you out and to get the job done fast.

Once we have extracted the standing water in your basement, the primary equipment we use in drying your home are dehumidifiers and air movers. Two guidelines we use for placing air movers are maintaining a balance between the dehumidifiers and air movers and positioning enough air movers to make airflow across all wet surfaces.

Air movers raise the rate of evaporation. As moisture evaporates from wet surfaces, the layer of air next to it becomes saturated. The higher humidity at the surface then starts slowing down the evaporation of additional moisture. Air movers send airflow over wet surfaces, blowing the air layer that is saturated away and replacing it with drier air. The dehumidifiers SERVPRO techs use create warm, dry air, but we need the air movers for circulating the dry air across wet materials and your structure.

Since air movers evaporate moisture into the airspace and dehumidifiers remove moisture from the air, we must keep the two in balance. Too few air movers in relation to dehumidifiers result in a drying process that is slower. Dehumidifiers extract more moisture when the air is holding a great deal of moisture.

Too many air movers in relation to dehumidifiers result in secondary water damages. Too many air movers mean the dehumidifiers cannot extract moisture from the air as fast as air movers are evaporating it into the air.

SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville has trained staff who can properly operate the equipment used in drying your home in Douglas, South Shore, or Kenwood. When your basement has flooded, call us right away at (312) 509-5000, so we can dry you back out.

Levels Of Fire Damage Possible After An Electrical Fire In Your Chicago Home

Your home in Chicago is filled with electrical appliances and wires, but when they malfunction, they can create massive fires.

Fire Damage After An Electrical Fire

Your home in Chicago is filled with electrical appliances and wires, but when they malfunction, they can create massive fires. The worst part about this is that most electrical fires cannot be doused with water. They instead require special fire extinguishers that are water-free to fight them. To prevent these types of fires in the first place, make sure that you do not plug in an overabundance of appliances into the same outlet and fix any outlets or wiring which you think could be damaged.

If you have experienced an electrical fire, there is plenty of fire damage in your Chicago home which needs to be repaired and cleaned up. It can be an overwhelming thing to deal with, and that is why our staff at SERVPRO is ready to help you anytime you need. We are professionally trained to handle damage after a fire, and we work efficiently and promptly so that you can get back to your usual way of life.

Not every fire results in the same level of damage, and not all fires need the same kind of procedures for restoration. Any loss can have a range of damage from minor to major. Minor fire damage affects only specific areas or rooms. How much smoke residues are left behind is light to moderate. Restoration involves dry and wet cleaning of walls, ceilings, contents, and floors. Only minor items need replacing, and a few areas might need repainting.

The amount of smoke residues in medium fire damage is moderate. More materials require our SERVPRO team to wet clean them to remove residues. How many areas need repainting and replacement increase, and floors might need refinishing. Heat damage to cabinets, drywall, and contents might need more replacing. We can clean contents on the job site. Smoke odors are also more noticeable, so it may require additional deodorization after we finish cleaning.

Heat and fire damage is severe near the fire source with significant fire damage. There could be charring to structural finishes and framing, making a need for structural repairs. Smoke residues are spread throughout a significant portion of the home, and smoke odors are strong and maybe even pungent. Emergency services like boarding up the structure, establishing temporary electricity, and removing charred and smoke-filled debris could be necessary. Restoration involves extensive cleaning in this case, and multiple methods of deodorization are needed to get rid of smoke odors.

No matter the level of fire damage in your home in South Shore, Kenwood, or Douglas, SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville works hard to get your home restored. Reach out to us at (312) 509-5000 as soon as the fire is out so we can help you.

All You Need to Know When You Face Water Damage in Chicago

If you experience water damage, call on the professionals at SERVPRO to help.

Call on SERVPRO to Identify the Category of Water Damage in Your Home

Every property owner fears to experience water damage incidents since they bring about a lot of losses. The other aspect of such problems is that they make your contents undergo slow but steady deterioration if you fail to start the remediation process as soon as possible. For instance, there is a risk of mold growth, which can cause health effects and permanent destruction to your Chicago home.

There are three main types of water you should expect during a water damage incident in Chicago, and these are Category 1 (clean water), Category 2 (gray water) and Category 3 also known as black water. Our SERVPRO technicians understand that both black and gray water can present health effects to the occupants, and therefore handle such situations differently and wear Personal Protective Equipment during the remediation process.

Sometimes it can be challenging to develop a clear picture of the areas with the actual damage. It is critical to first identify such areas by using specialized equipment like moisture meters because water usually hides in places like walls. The next step is to dry the wet areas, and the materials we are restoring determine the method our SERVPRO technicians use. If we are restoring an insulated wall, then we may decide to introduce flood cuts, otherwise, weep holes can be an option when reclaiming walls with no insulation.

Our SERVPRO team also establishes a proper airflow in the area to enhance the drying process. Opening windows and introducing air movers might not be enough in places where the moisture load is high, and we might need to do more. When drying your property, we can use hygrometers to ensure the area does not end up with excess humidity. We can perform dehumidification to absorb the extra moisture if we notice there is high humidity.

SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville is an industry leader in residential and commercial restoration. Call us at (312) 509-5000 when you face fire, mold, water or storm damage, and we can make it “Like it never even happened.”

Get Your Basics Right When You Experience Mold Damage in Chicago

If water-soaked materials are not dried out thoroughly, mold damage is likely to occur.

Rely on SERVPRO to Thoroughly Remediate Mold Damage on Your Property

If you fail to dry your water-soaked contents quickly enough, there are chances of mold damage taking place. Bacteria, mildew, as well as molds, cause decomposition, and it is essential to know your options as a resident of Chicago. Understanding the basics of this kind of damage is vital to prevent permanent loss and controlling such situations.

The discovery of mold damage at your Chicago building means there is water accumulation in the area. Our SERVPRO technicians help you to dry your structure and materials using specialized techniques and equipment. Improving the quality of air in such places is also one of our objectives. We start by making initial assessments before settling on the most appropriate remediation processes.

If spores are left to move around, then it means the contamination spreads to clean areas. Our SERVPRO team puts in place containment measures to prevent such outcomes. One of those measures is putting the contaminated area under negative pressure - which means air only flows into the region, without exiting. Another technique is installing containment barriers such as plastic sheeting.

Mold removal then follows, and the technique our SERVPRO team uses depends on the surface with the contamination. If the area is nonporous, we can wipe it clean using a detergent solution, but when dealing with porous surfaces, we usually remove and discard the materials. We know mold can cause health effects and during the remediation process, we wear personal protective equipment such as gloves, eye protection, and an N-95 respirator.

At this point, it is safe to set up drying equipment, such as air movers, since containment is already in place. We usually prefer dehumidifiers with minimal airflow to enhance the drying process until we achieve the allowed moisture levels. After that, we may perform deodorization to sterilize surfaces and neutralize odor-causing particles.

SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville is a trusted industry leader in water, storm, fire, and mold remediation. Call us at (312) 509-5000 when you need reliable services and to have every situation "Like it never even happened."

Fire Damage In Your Kitchen Should Never Stress You When In Chicago

No property owner loves to experience any fire damage since such incidents lead to massive losses.

Fire Damage In Your Kitchen

No property owner loves to experience any fire damage since such incidents lead to massive losses. That means it is vital to understand the various causes of fires and how to prevent them. Additionally, Chicago residents need to know the right actions to take to control the resulting effects. These are very stressing moments where a simple mistake will cause more destruction to what is salvageable.

Kitchens are the sources of most domestic fire damage incidents in Chicago. If your oven malfunctions or you use a stove that is not in a good working condition, there is a possibility of starting a fire. Before you know it, it has spread to the napkins or cooking tools, and soon everything gets out of control. That is why it is necessary to work with our SERVPRO technicians to mitigate the damage.

The first thing that we do when we arrive at our property is to assess the level of the damage. At this point, we examine whether your furniture, walls, and other areas need attention after getting into contact with the soot, smoke, and fire. The step is so essential since it helps us to plan and give our clients accurate quotes. During the planning process, we decide on the right tools and procedures to use when restoring your contents.

Remember, there is a lot of destruction that results during combustion. For instance, the fire can burn part of your roof and leave behind a hole. When it rains, things can get worse as the water mixes with the soot and other particles. Some of the residues decompose, and the result is unpleasant odors. Our SERVPRO team can clean the mess and perform deodorization to neutralize the odor-causing sources. Our technicians are certified by IICRC, and we follow all state regulations when restoring your property.

SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville is an industry leader in mold, fire, water and storm damage restoration. Call us at (312) 509-5000 if you want to turn that incident to appear “Like it never even happened.”

Chicago's Team of Flood Damage Experts

SERVPRO's first step in their flood damage restoration process is to stop the water from entering your home.

Call on SERVPRO for Thorough Flood Damage Restoration

During a storm in Chicago, the wind is always a significant factor. During springtime, more rainstorms are bound to occur. The wind created from a storm can cause rocks or tree branches to fly into your home and cause damage.

If the wind blows an object into a window, there is a good chance that it breaks causing a hole in your house's structure. Anytime water has a chance to damage your home it is smart to call SERVPRO's flood damage experts in Chicago. Water damage from a storm is never fun, and it takes specialized equipment and procedures to mitigate correctly.

The first thing our SERVPRO restoration crew does in any water damage scenario is to keep water from entering the house once they arrive. Next, our team extracts any standing water found in the area of the damage. Once all water gets removed from the area's building materials, the drying process begins.

During any drying process, our technicians know that airflow is key to a job done right. Knowing how air flows inside a home helps our crew get the best results when drying out a structure. Drying structures effectively requires using proper airflow techniques.

Whenever drying occurs after water damage, air movers get placed strategically inside a dwelling to provide the most efficient airflow inside a damaged room. Our team places air movers so that air bounces off of walls at an angle and moves to other walls of the room. The air movers are all set up in a circular pattern so that air flows in a clockwise direction within the affected room. In most cases, our specialists remove your baseboard and drill holes into the drywall so that air can get up inside the walls and dry the wood studs.

Anytime rainwater gets into your house and ruins things it is best that you let professionals handle the situation. Our IICRC certified team always does what is best for you when you call SERVPRO of Hyde Park / E. Bridgeport / Bronzeville at (312) 509-5000 for help with flood-related issues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.